Obama’s Muddled Foreign Policy Message Buried in State of the Union

A rambling, 80+ minute State of the Union Address tonight gave President Obama an opportunity to lay out his foreign policy positions, but 60 minutes into the talk he hadn’t touched the matter at all.

When he finally did, what followed was a confusing muddle of claims of success and vague expressions of hope for things he’d like to accomplish without any specific plans attached.

Bragging about ending the Iraq War, President Obama touted his plan to “end” the Afghan War, while openly talking about an open-ended deployment of US troops on the ground there engaged in “counter-terrorism” operations. A war “ended” and simultaneously endless.

He then went on to talk about ending the “permanent war footing” the United States has been on since 9/11, but openly talked up increased increased military spending for “future missions” and intervention abroad.

Closing Guantanamo Bay was raised as a possibility, if Congress wants to, and he defended the notion of negotiations with Iran, while trying to downplay the chance of succeeding and reiterating that the US will retain “all options” to move against Iran no matter what.

Even on Syria, Obama’s position was filled with hedges, promising to back the rebels, but only the rebels that “reject terrorism,” and promising “the future the Syrian people deserve” while providing no detains about how to get there, or how arming those rebels, something he’s been doing for quite some time, was going to produce a different result than the stalemate that’s been on so far.

14 thoughts on “Obama’s Muddled Foreign Policy Message Buried in State of the Union”

Obama is just hopeless with his kill the children, foreign policy.. He got my vote on his first run for president against "bomb bomb "bomb …………bomba McCain…. but not last time.. Last time I went with Jill….. Yeah, he fooled me once: So it's Shame on HIM and not on me….

If you ask the old enough person, they will tell you that: they have heard the same talks for last 48 yeas, women are still underpaid, jobs are not created to last long, it was 20 some years ago when Bill Clinton talked about minimum wage and pay raise for women, the Granada invasion was during Ronald Reagan so was the Iran affair, it was during Bill Clinton when Balkan wars started, it was during Kennedy when Vietnam war escalated, it was during Bush regime when Afghanistan and later Iraq war was started, and 48 years later, here we go again, the very same speech about American prosperity but still at war with other nation, still protecting tyrants while talking being against tyranny, talking about American democracy while closing the doors to all other functioning system for the people out there, manipulative, manipulative as it has been for last 275 years.

It is frequently and correctly averred that it is the Military-Industrial-Complex which drives the eternal U.S. state of war. What is seldom stated is that this state of war is also driven by the expectation, nay demand by much of our nation that we must have the highest living standard of any nation. That demand was born in 1945. It resulted, among others, in the destruction of organized labor. I am sorry but I cannot join the current whining of our so-called "middle class". It got what it deserved including eternal war.

A "permanent war footing" since 9/11? Not since World War II? Closing Guantanamo, it's like Obama's an Alzheimer's patient: "did I mention I want to close Gitmo" repeated every 5 minutes. Of course it's never closed.

You're going to be so disappointed… Regardless of how bad it is – and it's far from good – there are many who will benefit. And like Medicare/Medicaid before it, once it's fully operational, there will be no way the pols will dare to "repeal and replace it (with nothing, of course).

It, like Social Security will become that untouchable 3rd rail. Now, if the TPers/GOPers would care to delineate a viable alternative…yeah…get back to ya…

For instance, in the run-up to Part D, the promo was that it would be paid for (didn't say how) and it wasn't. And when it became obvious that it was very, very expensive the citizens who used it didn't call for repeal – in fact they threatened the pols if they touched it. So, once out there Obamacare will remain. Could be better, should have been better if the intent was to actually reduce costs but the intent was to placate the insurance industry which it did in spades.

I've decided we should do away with the old BC AD or BCE and CE…. I think that we should change those old designations by replacing them with BS and AS… Of course BS refers to the period before the Snowdon revelations, and AS to this present npost Snowdon world…………